


the edge of space

by meng_ren



Category: Infinite (Band)
Genre: Alternate Universe - Science Fiction, Gen
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2015-06-15
Updated: 2015-06-15
Packaged: 2018-04-04 12:18:40
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings
Chapters: 1
Words: 7,204
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/4137252
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/meng_ren/pseuds/meng_ren
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>“Since when did I become the personal driver for an interstellar space whore?</p><p>“Apparently today.”</p><p>Kim Sunggyu had been a captain for six years, and he had never, ever met a passenger like Nam Woohyun.</p><p>[Firefly AU]</p>
            </blockquote>





	the edge of space

**Author's Note:**

> This is simply another work of fiction. No knowledge of the show Firefly should be necessary to understand this story, while this story is not fully faithful to the Firefly storyline. However, for the reader's sake, the setting should be explained: Firefly takes place in a future where humans have left Earth and colonized other planets. These planets are ruled by the Alliance (formed by the merger of the USA and China), which defeated the Independents in a war of unification.

Transporting people was always easier than transporting cargo. All he had to do was let the poor saps into his ship, where they spent a week or two being bounced around by the jostling _Firefly_ -class transport until he could kick them out. It worked out for both parties' benefit: he made ten credits, and they arrived where they wanted. Now goods were much more difficult to move. The Alliance never bothered to inspect for people: in a universe of twenty billion people, it was too hard to cross-check every person against the fugitive registry. It was much more common that Feds demanded that he prepare the _Infinite_ for docking so they could inspect his ship.

It never got to that point, of course, because he was better at running away from them than they were at catching him. And that was how Kim Sunggyu, captain of the _Infinite_ , got a reputation as being the best smuggler in the galaxy.

“Have you ever thought we should do more legitimate work?” Jang Dongwoo, the ship’s Chief Mate, asked, standing in the ship’s galley as he prepared a primitive meal of noodles and soybean paste.

“We are doing legitimate work,” said Sunggyu, sitting in the mess hall. He tried to continue digging into his own shabby looking breakfast, which consisted of unidentified orange protein chunks atop of rice, but the flavor was unappealing. “We’re hauling produce this time. Unless you think there’s something illegitimate about radishes.”

“No, I meant in general,” said Dongwoo. “What if we stopped taking on jobs where we move, no questions asked, any type of cargo?.”

“Sounds boring,” said Sunggyu, taking a bite and grimacing at the metallic taste. They really needed a good cook around here. “Our next job is legitimate too. That’s two jobs in a row. Tell me if you get bored of it before we’re halfway through.”

“What are we doing next?” Dongwoo asked. He took a bite of his meal, choked on the flavor, and forced the meal down with a prodigious gulp of water. His food didn't know whether to be sweet, sour, salty, or bitter.

“Some wholesaler on Persephone is trying to offload tea sets. We’re picking that up, and transporting some person,” Sunggyu said nonchalantly. He fiddled with the captain’s tablet next to him for a few seconds to pull up the message. “Sounds like a real VIP though. He or she is willing to pay twenty credits, and more if necessary.”

“A fugitive? We haven’t had one of those in a while,” Dongwoo said, between gulps of water to wash down the oily aftertaste of his meal.

“I don’t know. I didn’t get a name or a face,” Sunggyu replied. “Here’s the message: _Ni hao_ [Hello] _, Captain Kim! I’d like to enlist you as a transporter. I’ll meet you at Persephone’s Eavesdown Docks. The rendezvous time will be noon on Persephone’s fifth month, eighth day. You’ll know it’s me. I don’t have a destination: I’ll pay you twenty credits to stay aboard your ship for two weeks, and then you can drop me off at whatever planet you land on next. I can pay more if needed. Hope to see you there_.”

“He doesn’t care where we get off? What if we’re landing on a giant snowball like St. Albans?” Dongwoo responded.

“We’re not welcome in St. Albans,” scowled Sunggyu. “Thanks to our grease monkey, if you don’t remember.”

“Somebody called my name?” Chirped a voice entering the mess hall.

“We weren’t talking about you, Sungyeol,” responded Sunggyu with a smile. “I didn’t know you came when called. That’s awfully obedient of you. Aren’t you up to no good with Myungsoo and Sungjong?”

“They’re busy. Now it’s your time to be bothered,” Sungyeol said with a grin. He grabbed a spoon from the kitchen and helped himself to a large bite of the orange protein, sitting on the stove. He gagged loudly, and coughed. Sunggyu rolled his eyes.

“Anyhow, we reach atmosphere in two hours. We land on Persephone, offload our cargo, get the new cargo and the new guy, and then we’re out of here before the Feds try to exercise one of the fifty warrants out for our arrest,” Sunggyu responded. “Tell the rest of the crew.”

“Yes, sir,” Dongwoo and Sungyeol said simultaneously. They exited the mess hall without a sound, and Sunggyu reclined back, staring at the ceiling. He closed his eyes just to rest for a second, but sleep overtook him.

 

—

 

“Reinforcements aren’t coming,” said Lieutenant Yonekura. He threw his communicator against a wall of the temple, where it bounced off the wall and hit a statue of Guanyin, the deity of mercy. The device knocked off the statue’s arm, which fell in a rubble heap made up of the temple’s tiles.

“Why?” gritted Sunggyu between clenched teeth. The sound of a mortar landing nearby caused him to wince, as the roof shook again. He would have preferred a form of shelter more sturdy than clay and plaster, if he had the choice. “Have they lost their spine? We’re dying out there!”

“The bridge at Zhuang River got taken,” said Yonekura, pacing back at forth. “Our whole left flank collapsed. All of the Alliance forces in the Seong Pocket are now free.”

“Got taken how!? That bridge is forty kilometers from the battlefield!” Sunggyu responded, incredulously. “Alliance wasn’t supposed to get there, ever!”

“I don’t know, Sunggyu!” The lieutenant responded. “Something about airborne forces. Or maybe spaceborn. Whatever it was, it means the Alliance has Zhuang Valley, and we poor saps here in Wei Valley are toast. Serenity Valley will be lost for sure, whether or not we hold this position.”

Sunggyu stared at the officer. “What does that mean for us?”

“That was the local division,” said the lieutenant with a pained look. “They suggested we surrender. Pray that we don’t get shot as traitors. At best, we’ll be prisoners of war, and maybe we’ll be amnestied in a few years.”

“I’m not doing that!” Sunggyu responded. “I swore I’d put my life on the line!”

Another shell dropped outside the temple, sending Sunggyu to the ground for cover. The lieutenant looked at Sunggyu and shook his head sadly. “You’ve been here for what, half a year? You’re still young. There’s a evacuation point for the Independents five miles east of here. Go, take the rest of the squad if anybody’s left, and make it off-planet.”

“What about you, Lieutenant Yonekura?” Sunggyu responded.

The lieutenant smiled, holding up a belt of grenades. “I’ll cover for you.”

“I can’t!” Sunggyu said, his mouth open. “There’s nobody else here to save you.”

“Go, Kim Sunggyu. That’s an order,” the man said with finality.

Reluctantly, Sunggyu turned away, walking slowly. Right before he broke out into a run, he turned around and saw the serene face of the Guanyin statue, unperturbed despite the loss of its arms and halo.

“Useless deity of mercy,” he muttered under his breath, turning away.

It didn’t take Sunggyu very long to reach the evacuation point, where a number of transports were taking off. Adrenaline and fear must have sustained him the whole way.

“There’s not a lot of you!” A soldier yelled from a transport’s cargo bay. “Where’s the rest of your men? And your commanding officer?”

“Dead!” Sunggyu yelled, climbing into the back of the transport spacecraft. Their talking could scarcely be heard over the noise of the engine idling. “Except for the Lieutenant. He’s still out there.”

“We can’t wait for him,” yelled the other soldier. “We’ve got fifty men here on a spaceship meant for twelve, and we’re already detecting airships on our radar.”

“Give him five minutes. Or just one, please,” Sunggyu begged.

The soldier shook her head. “I can’t. You need to get on now, or you can stay here. Surrender or what not. I don’t care. You need to make a decision now.”

“We can’t leave him!”

“Listen, you have ten seconds to decide before I push you out,” she responded.

Sunggyu looked at her with shock, and sighed. He boarded the spacecraft, taking a seat right by the window. As the ship left, he saw a lone soldier, in the distance, walking from the temple.

 

—

 

“Captain, captain. _Qilai_ [Get up], _qilai_ ,” said Dongwoo. Sunggyu strained to wake up, as he felt a nudge at his side. “We’re on Persephone. The buyer’s here. And there’s something else interesting.”

Sunggyu gave a grumpy look towards Dongwoo as he started walking out of the mess and into the rest of the ship. There was a tall, frumpled looking man in the hold, and Sunggyu went up to him.

“Is everything to your satisfaction?” Sunggyu asked. The man nodded. “And the payment?”

“Sixty credits as promised,” the man said, placing a wad of credits in Sunggyu’s hands. “By the way, your ship’s attracting some attention. I’m not happy about that. I don’t want it to happen again. I’m not just in the produce business, if you know what I mean.”

The man gave a huff and walked out. Sunggyu raised an eyebrow and checked to make sure the _Infinite_ was in satisfactory condition. Shortly before noon, he began heading out of the hold as well, trying to see what "attention" meant.

To be more accurate, there was a crowd of people outside the ship, arrayed in a semi-circle around a person in the middle. Sunggyu could hear various _oohs_ and _ahhs_ coming from the crowd, and he wanted to yell at them to scram, if he didn’t see the person in the middle.

It was a man, rather short. He wore a clean and well-fitted suit with slim blue tie, which set him apart from the masses around him who wore unkempt _hanbok_ and _kimono_. But what really set him apart was his appearance: thin and graceful, with strong and proud features. And in his arms was a black notebook.

This man was a _Companion!_

Sunggyu had seen many things. He spent a year as a soldier. He was once involved in a jailbreak on Ariel. He outran an Alliance battlecruiser outside of Whitefall. He once robbed a Blue Sun transport en route to Sihnon. He had seen blood, violence, theft, and greed.

He had never seen a Companion.

A Companion was a courtesan to only the most rich and powerful in the galaxy. Even minor Lords were unable to access the services of such a courtesan. The Companions were members of a long and storied profession. They were trained for years in the ways of bringing sensual delight to men and women alike. A hundred credits wouldn’t be enough to pay for breathing the same air as a Companion. A thousand might only be enough to hold a Companion’s hand. Twenty credits to transport this man? Spending a night within visual distance of a Companion was more than the _Infinite_ ’s value, if it was new.

The Companion turned up to look at Sunggyu. Sunggyu’s mouth dropped. _A Companion, looking at a mere mortal, him._ But the other man must not have noticed, for he began walking up the ramp into the _Infinite_ ’s hold.

“ _Ni hao_. Are you Kim Sunggyu?” The man asked. Sunggyu showed no reaction, other than stupidly flapping his jaw up and down. The man raised an eyebrow, then reached up with his hand to Sunggyu’s chin, pushing it up so Sunggyu’s mouth closed. “Don’t do that. You’re like a fish gaping in air.”

 _A Companion was touching him! It was going to be the end for him. Now he was going to need to pawn the_ Infinite _and sell his whole crew into slavery just to pay for that tiny bit of physical contact. His whole career was now over. Only doom and gloom awaited him. This was it, this was—_

“Kim Sunggyu.” The man said firmly, while pushing down on Sunggyu’s chin to look him in the eyes. The Companion was a bit shorter than him. Hearing his name helped Sunggyu snap out of panic. While his thoughts were of the same panicked character as before, he was at least in control of his thoughts.

“That’s me,” Sunggyu responded. The other man let go of Sunggyu’s chin. “I understand I was supposed to transport you.” Sunggyu looked down at the Companion, and suddenly felt very shabby in his worn browncoat and mud-smeared boots. He inhaled deeply and caught a strong scent of flowers. _So this is what a Companion smells like. That’s why everybody was here, they would never otherwise know this fact._

“That’s great. Is the fare still twenty credits?” The man asked.

What Sunggyu wanted to say was _I should be paying you for the honor of being in your presence, as opposed to you paying me for anything_ , but what he ended up saying was “Yes.”

“Good. I’m travelling light, so all of my goods are here,” the man pointed to a large stack of boxes and luggage cases that were probably larger in volume than the chinaware Sunggyu was legitimately transporting. “In that case, I’ll go inside and wait for you. You’ll never be able to take off with this crowd of people around you.”

The man walked past Sunggyu without touching him, and Sunggyu blinked a few times. _Just who exactly had he agreed to transport?_

 

—

 

Sunggyu ran back into the _Infinite_ without making eye contact with the Companion in the mess hall, who was sitting elegantly. The rest of the crew had similar reactions upon seeing the man, only they managed to come to their senses and run away from the man’s presence.

It was only after Sunggyu had taken off and the ship left Persephone that Sunggyu dared to go into the mess hall to give the passenger an explanation of the ship’s rules.

Sunggyu went into the mess with trepidation, and saw the man sitting comfortably. “Captain Kim!” The man said with a smile, getting to his feet. He reached out a hand, as if to shake. Sunggyu reacted the exact same way he did before, with his mouth gaping, and the other man exhaled in disbelief. “That’s getting old.”

_What was he supposed to do? Shake a Companion’s hand? Did that automatically create a contract? He would need to work for ten lifetimes to affordably pay for something like that! What to do, what to do!_

“It’s okay, you can shake it. It won’t hurt and I won’t charge you,” said the man. Sunggyu gulped and reached out to shake the man’s hand. It was incredibly soft and smooth, unlike Sunggyu’s hand, which was blistered and chapped and scarred from years of fighting and hard work.

“Thank you,” said Sunggyu.

“For what? I haven’t done anything?” The man said with a smile.

“For allowing me the honor of shaking your hand,” Sunggyu responded, shaking slightly.

“Oh, that? It’s nothing,” the Companion said with a laugh. Sunggyu quickly pulled his hand back before the other man changed his mind.

“You’re a Companion, right?” Sunggyu asked.

The other man nodded. “Yes, my name’s Nam Woohyun. I know you’re pretty shocked. I never expected to be on Persephone either. I usually don’t travel beyond Osiris. Even Ariel is considered distant for me.”

“And you want me to transport you?” Sunggyu said. “To where?”

“To anywhere,” Woohyun said with a shrug. “I need to start over.”

“Why? You’re a Companion. You can have anything you dream!” Sunggyu responded.

“Well,” and Woohyun looked a little abashed, turning away. “It involves an admiral, a break-in at the Osiris shipyards, and the theft of two Alliance warships.”

“What! Are you being serious? I don’t understand,” Sunggyu stammered.

Woohyun gave a wink. “Don’t say I didn’t warn you.”

“Are you a fugitive?” Sunggyu asked.

“Not yet,” Woohyun responded.

The two men just stood there for a second, before Sunggyu finally recovered. “This ship isn’t picky when it comes to customers. I’ll show you around.”

“Excellent.”

For the next half hour, Sunggyu managed to explain the rest of the ship. Woohyun’s belongings mostly remained in the hold, but he moved some materials to his personal room. Woohyun was allowed in the mess hall to eat. He could move freely between his room and the mess hall, but needed a crew member to escort him anywhere else.

“These are your quarters, wait, no these are the captain’s quarters,” said Sunggyu, panicking slightly as he tried to show Woohyun the living areas.

“Is there something you’re not telling me?” Woohyun quipped with a smile.

“No, never, no, absolutely not,” said Sunggyu, trying to recover. “I hope the _Infinite_ is okay with you,” he continued, keeping his eyes glued to the floor.

Woohyun didn’t seem to mind, reaching out to touch the ship’s walls. “I don’t mind. It’s cozy. I’ve been in spaces far more cramped than this.” He didn’t elaborate and Sunggyu didn’t ask.

Sunggyu introduced Woohyun formally to the rest of the crew. In order of rank, they were Dongwoo, the Chief Mate; Howon, who provided the muscle; and Sungyeol, Myungsoo, and Sungjong, three mechanics who kept the ship running but provided the rest of the help needed.

Sunggyu and Woohyun returned to the mess, where Woohyun walked into the galley. He peered down at the sink, where the dishes with Dongwoo’s noodles and Sunggyu’s rice lay. He turned next to look at Sunggyu’s unidentified protein source on the stove, and took a sniff.

Woohyun frowned. “These noodles are a lost cause, but you could have prepared this duck in a halfway decent manner. Next time, you could ask me.”

Sunggyu’s first thought was _That was duck?_ , followed by _Did a Companion seriously offer to cook him a meal?_ This was on the _Infinite_ , a beat-up _Firefly_ -class transport! And a Companion was offering to cook the crew a meal? _Was this all one cruel joke? Was he going to wake up now?_ He pinched himself, just to make sure he wasn’t dreaming.

“Ouch!” He gave a yelp, then inspected his arm where he had pinched himself. He was not in fact dreaming.

“Are you okay, captain? I know first aid as well. Do you want a bandage?” Woohyun responded.

It was too much. Sunggyu slumped into a chair, putting a hand on his head. There was no way this was real. First, he met a Companion, then the Companion offered to cook for him and even perform first aid for him. This was unreal.

“You look a little faint,” said Woohyun, continuing as if he didn’t pay attention to Sunggyu’s condition. “Do you want me to get some water for you?”

_A Companion getting him water?_

“Enough!” Sunggyu yelled as he stood up, half to wake himself up from any dream and half to express his frustration. “I don’t understand any of this? Why is a Companion asking me for work? We’re not staying in the core worlds. Our first stop is Boros! Why are you being so nice to me? I don’t get any of this!”

Sunggyu put his head back as he sat back into the seat again, staring at the ceiling. “I don’t get any of this,” he whispered again.

Woohyun nodded sympathetically. “I’m not surprised. You said your first stop is Boros?”

Sunggyu nodded. “Yeah, we’ll reach there in five days.”

“And where are you going after that?” Woohyun continued asking.

“Jiangyin,” Sunggyu said without a beat.

Woohyun made an appreciative sound. “The Red Sun system. I haven’t been back home for a while.”

“What?” Sunggyu responded.

“I want to explain my situation to you, Captain,” said Woohyun, changing the subject. Sunggyu stared, and Woohyun continued. “I’m a wanted man.”

“Are you in debt?” Sunggyu asked.

Woohyun shook his head. “If I was in debt, would I have these in my pocket?” He asked, before pulling some credit chips out of his jacket's inner pocket. Sunggyu stared. These were chips that held a million credits, minimum. “With these, I could make a down payment on a battleship,” he smiled.

“Then what’s the issue?” Sunggyu responded.

“Like I hinted before, it involves the Alliance Navy, the Blue Sun, and some state secrets that have never been spoken of outside of New Londinium,” Woohyun said. “Some things are never meant to be said, but some men will say anything in bed.”

“You found something out? From your Companion work?” Sunggyu continued. Woohyun gave a bemused expression.

“I didn’t say that, Captain, but I won't say you're wrong,” Woohyun said.

“So that’s why you’re here. You want to lie low from the Alliance, and you don’t care where you go as long as it’s not a core world,” Sunggyu continued.

“Smart man,” Woohyun responded.

“If I’m so smart, then how do you know I won’t turn you over to the authorities for some large reward?” Retorted Sunggyu.

“Because,” said Woohyun with a smug smile, “I know there won’t be a public award for me. Have you ever heard of a Companion wanted by the authorities? It would ruin our mystique. In fact, it’d ruin our clients too, if people got the idea that the Companion at a Lord’s elbow today could be a petty criminal tomorrow. But more importantly, the Alliance can’t publicly say I’m wanted because that would draw attention to me. There are secrets I know, secrets which might be kept safe if nothing happens to me. But if I let anything accidentally spill,” and Woohyun smiled again, “there might be chaos from Sihnon to Whitefall.”

Sunggyu shook his head in shock again. “I can’t believe this. I’m dreaming. I have an interstellar fugitive Companion on my ship who knows things that might topple the Alliance, and he offered to cook for me.” He put his head in his hands.

Woohyun stood up and spoke. “There’s another reason why I chose you.”

“ _Weishenme_ [Why]?” Sunggyu asked, without raising his head.

“After the Unification War, some of the Independent prisoners of war were sold into slavery. A few were killed outright. But others agreed to betray their ideals and join the Alliance. Not all of them were truthful,” Woohyun said. “I came across a navy official who’s still an Independent at heart. Right before the Battle of Serenity Valley, he was still Lieutenant Yonekura. You might know him?”

Sunggyu jerked his head upright in shock. “He’s still alive!”

Woohyun nodded. “He suggested you could help me out first. I did some more research too. That’s why I know you won’t betray me, Captain. Our interests align.” He got up and began walking to his quarters, lingering in the doorway for just a second. “I’ll be in _my_ room.”

Woohyun walked out, and Sunggyu leaned back for what must have been the tenth time that day. But rather than fall asleep there, he walked into his empty cabin and collapsed on the bed. The dreams were pleasant that night.

 

—

 

The next day started when Sunggyu smelled bacon. He got up in his bed, still wearing his clothes from yesterday, and he went to the mess hall. His jaw dropped.

Standing in the mess hall at the stove, dressed in what looked like a hazardous material suit, was Woohyun.

“Good morning, captain! Normally, Companions don’t let our clients see this, but we use the highest imaginable safety standards when we cook for them. We won’t use the suit if the client wants to watch though. It’s been years since a Companion’s food has made a client sick,” Woohyun chirped.

“Wait, how did you get bacon?” Sunggyu continued.

“I brought some. My luggage doesn’t consist only of clothing,” Woohyun said, before returning to his cooking.

The smell Woohyun’s breakfast brought the other crew members, so there were all seven of them, seated around the table eating a meal of bacon, sausage, eggs, and potatoes.

“This is amazing,” said Sungjong, causing Woohyun to smile.

“Not a lot of markets in Persephone have these,” Woohyun said. He smiled mischievously. “And if one of my clients there is missing a dozen eggs, I would be the last person to ask about it.”

“So Companions learn to cook too?” Myungsoo asked. Woohyun nodded.

“ _Dangran_ [Of course],” the Companion said. “We learn how to do domestic chores first. That’s how we wash out a lot of candidates. Can you imagine a Companion burning a client’s lunch? It’s unimaginable.”

Myungsoo nodded in understanding. “What else do you learn?”

“Some of us are stronger in the arts: there are those among us who excel at poetry, painting, dance, and singing. Others among us specialize in politics, psychology, and language. And then there are those who achieve a deep understanding of the martial arts,” Woohyun said. “I was more artistic than intellectual. Dance and singing are my strong points, but I’m good at all of those topics.”

Myungsoo gave a little gasp of astonishment. Woohyun then drew near to Myungsoo’s ear and whispered. “And only after learning all of that, a Companion then learns how to please a client in every sensual way imaginable.”

The mechanic gave a yelp as his whole face turned a deep shade of red, prompting Sungyeol on his other side to pull him away from Woohyun.

“That’s enough, quit teasing him,” said Sungyeol with a lighthearted smile.

“So Companions need to fight too? Why haven’t I heard of this?” Howon asked.

Woohyun turned towards him. “We’re not expected to fight. Our clients are men, well, they’re almost invariably men, who are surrounded by bodyguards even when they live in New Londinium neighborhoods which have never witnessed a murder. But if security fails, a Companion is expected to be the last line of defense.”

“When does a Companion start training?” Dongwoo asked.

“We officially start at twelve, but informally, it can begin earlier or later. The intellectual assessment can begin at birth with prospective Companions in the core world. But in the border worlds, you can join as a teenager if you pass a test,” continued Woohyun.

“Which one were you?” Sunggyu asked.

“I can’t tell you,” Woohyun said. “Once we join a Companion House, we’re supposed to cut off all ties with our former lives. Only a handful of exceptions exist, if you come from one of the families in the core worlds which have produced generations of Companions. That’s not my family, if that tells you anything.”

The others around the table nodded as they finished eating breakfast.

After returning to their duties, the crew returned to see a second meal present for lunch. Sunggyu took a glance and saw real, fresh vegetables.

“I must be dreaming,” Sunggyu murmured to himself.

That evening at dinner, Woohyun prepared barbecued meat for all of the crew.

“Don’t get used to this,” he warned the six salivating men sitting at the table. “I’ll eventually run out of food.”

Sungjong then turned towards Sunggyu to speak quietly. “We can’t let him go.”

 

—

 

It was the third day that went wrong.

Things started off on the wrong food when an Alliance cruiser suddenly showed up in front of them and hailed them.

“ _Gai si_ [Damn it]!” Dongwoo swore, as the other ship literally appeared in Sunggyu and Dongwoo’s vision.

“How did they get past our sensors?” Sunggyu said, shocked.

“I don’t know!” Dongwoo said in a panic. “They must have used a cloaking device.”

“This is the I.A.V. _Changchun_. Halt all movement.” The voice on the other end crackled.

“Is there something wrong?” Sunggyu asked innocently as he answered the warship’s signal. “We’re just an honest bunch of men hauling tea sets to Boros. I can’t think of any reason you’d want us.”

“Relax, captain,” came the warship’s message. “We don’t care what type of bootleg contraband you’re hauling. It’s your passenger we might want.”

“What passenger?” Sunggyu continued.

“Don’t you mean, _which_ passenger? We got a report from Persephone that a very wanted person got onboard a _Firefly_ -class transporter. We need to search every _Firefly_ -class we can. We’ll scan your ship for heat signatures and then make sure you don’t have the person we want,” the voice continued.

“How would I know you aren’t planning on stealing my cargo?” Sunggyu asked.

A sigh came from the voice on the other end. “We’re Alliance, captain, but we’re not _Feds_. Have you ever heard of the Navy seizing a ship’s cargo in peacetime? We only want the fugitive. Just let us check and we’ll be on our way.” The voice beeped.

“And how do you intend to do that?” Sunggyu responded.

“We’re already detecting seven heat signatures from your ship. Just have everybody in the dock when we board. We’ll make sure that we don't want any of the seven people aboard the ship,” droned the voice.

“You sound confident about that number,” Sunggyu said, voice growing a bit more desperate.

“We’re not in the mood to question our sensors. If there aren’t seven people in the hold when we get there, everybody else can expect a one-way ticket to a very, very distant penal colony. Your ship will be junk,” snapped the line at the other end.

“What if this fugitive you’re looking for is a stowaway on my ship?” Sunggyu countered. “It wouldn’t be fair to destroy this ship over something beyond my control.”

“That would be your negligence then, if you have six or fewer crew members. You’re not implying that, are you?” The voice piped, with bursts of static from the aging machinery. “So here are your options: Prepare to be docked, or we shoot. If your ship has seven onboard, everybody needs to be onboard when we dock. If there's only supposed to be six of you, then you can say goodbye to your ship, permanently.”

“That’s not fair,” Sunggyu seethed, anger rising.

“We don’t need to be fair,” said the voice. It made a final beep and faded out.

Sunggyu reclined back and groaned. There was no way out for him to keep Woohyun concealed if the Alliance boarded his ship. He couldn’t hide Woohyun in the _Infinite_ ’s numerous secret hiding spots because they’d cut the ship into pieces until they found who they were looking for. Because the _Firefly_ -class was docking inside the larger warship, he couldn’t hide Woohyun outside the ship itself. He just couldn’t think of anything. He had never been in a similar situation before. He always had enough time to run away.

“Go ahead and dock. I’m not worried,” said a voice. Sunggyu jumped in his seat.

“Woohyun! What did you say?” Sunggyu said, astonished. He turned around to see that the Companion was standing in the doorway behind the pilot’s cabin.

“You heard me, captain. You’re already making them suspicious. You can’t outrun them at this distance. If you want to save this ship and its crew from a hot and fiery end right now, you’re better off letting them onto the ship,” Woohyun said nonchalantly. “They won’t hurt me. Even if they don’t know what I know, they’ll know I’m a Companion.”

“Excuse me, but this is my ship. I’m the captain and you’re the passenger. I decide what goes on in this ship,” Sunggyu seethed. He would never have dared to harm or even disrespect a Companion, but he would never let someone order him around in his own ship.

“No offense, captain,” Woohyun replied. “That cruiser over there will determine if you have a ship or not in the next ten minutes. Take me there and this will be over quickly.”

“I determine what this ship does,” Sunggyu responded. His anger was nothing more than a hint of resentment masking an immense amount of fear. “Since when did I become the personal driver for an interstellar space whore?” His voice was raised and his fists were clenched.

Woohyun just blinked. “Since today.”

Sunggyu gulped, and turned to Dongwoo besides him. “Can we escape?”

Dongwoo scratched his head. He stared at the _Infinite_ ’s sensor display, scanning for nearby ships. “We’re right in their range. Maybe we could try to lure them away with a fake distress signal, but—oh.”

“What is it?” Sunggyu asked.

“A second ship. Another cruiser. In five minutes, we’ll be within range of both ships. We’re not fast enough to escape one. In five minutes we won’t be able to escape either. And there’s no way we can fake a distress signal that gets both ships to leave,” Dongwoo said glumly.

Woohyun turned and sighed. “It was really fun knowing you. I wish it could have lasted longer. I’ll wait in the hull for boarding.”

“Wait,” Sunggyu responded. “I’m not going to just give you up like that. I’m the captain of this ship, and it’s my duty to protect everybody onboard.”

“Don’t risk your life, captain,” Woohyun responded.

“No, here’s what I’ll do,” Sunggyu said, with the plan he just formulated in his head. “I’ll tell that first cruiser that I have a passenger who will speak only to the captain of the ship. And when that captain comes, the whole crew will be with you. We’ll make sure they don’t just kill you right here. If we think they’re going to harm you, we’ll fight back.”

For the first time, Woohyun’s expression was one of shock. “But I just met you! Don’t be stupid. I’m just a passenger.”

“No,” said Sunggyu. “I want to offer you to join this crew. We need a cook.”

Woohyun’s expression was dumbfounded shock. “I’m a Companion. A whore. We can call ourselves fancy names and give ourselves an education, but we’re not respectable.”

“Doesn’t matter. We like you. We've never met anybody like you. I think we all want you here,” Sunggyu said. Woohyun looked at Dongwoo, who nodded.

“I think I’ll die if I go back to my cooking,” Dongwoo said.

Woohyun turned back to look at Sunggyu, who had a calm, knowledgeable expression on his face.

“If the Alliance comes, I want you to greet them as a crewmember, not a passenger,” Sunggyu said, with steel in his voice.

Woohyun nodded with a smile. “Thanks.”

Sunggyu clicked on the ship’s communication device. “I.A.V. _Changchun_ , we do have a passenger who demands to only speak to your captain.”

A few blips of static filtered through the communications signal before a voice replied. “Understood. You’ll dock in our hangar bay and we’ll send our captain.”

The next few minutes were tense as the tiny _Firefly_ -class remained still, allowing it to be neatly captured by the larger ship. The _Infinite_ ’s crew stood in the hold as a uniformed officer approached the plank alongside two armed men.

Sunggyu opened the cargo bay doors just a bit, enough for him to give a stern order. “We said the captain, only.”

The captain gave an annoyed grimace and responded. “I don’t like to be in strange ships with possibly armed men.”

“We had a deal,” Sunggyu said, mustering in his voice confidence that he didn’t have.

The captain gave a grimace. She waved off the guards, who slowly began walking back. “Now tell your men to leave.”

Sunggyu pondered the suggestion for a second, but decided it was good enough. The goal was to keep Woohyun from harm. Violence wouldn’t accomplish that.

He opened the doors far enough for Dongwoo, Howon, Sungyeol, Myungsoo, and Sungjong to exit. None of them were armed. There was no point when he was aboard a warship with hundreds, maybe thousands of soldiers.

When the captain began walking by herself towards the ship, one of the men stepped forward, just for a second. She raised a hand to order him otherwise. “I can take care of two men by myself. But if I don’t come back, they all die.”

She turned back towards Sunggyu. “Where’s this passenger? Don’t waste my time. I hope you understand how important the issue is that I’m dealing with it myself.”

Sunggyu nodded coldly. “In here, ma’am,” he said, as he waved her towards the mess hall.

Woohyun was sitting there, in his suit but without his Companion notebook. He gave a weak but friendly wave to the captain.

“You must be the _Changchun_ ’s captain,” he said.

“I am. I’m Captain Qin Yi. And you are?” She responded.

“I’m Nam Woohyun.” Woohyun said, with just a hint of sadness.

“I see. I think you’re the Companion I’m looking for. But just to be sure, I’ll give you a test,” Qin replied.

“By all means,” Woohyun said without hesitation.

“For beauty is nothing,” the captain started, beginning by reciting the first part of a poem.

“But the beginning of terror. Rilke. The first of the _Duino Elegies_.” Woohyun responded, almost smug. “That was easy.”

“A thousand mountains without a bird.” Qin continued after some time thinking.

“Ten thousand miles with no trace of man. Liu Zongyuan. _River Snow_.” At that, Sunggyu was the one smiling as well. Woohyun was indeed being smug. The captain looked almost infuriated, furrowing her brow.

“Hanging from the branches of a green willow tree,” she recited, settling on yet another poem.

“The spring rain is a thread of pearls. Lady Ise.” The words came easily off of Woohyun’s tongue as soon as the woman finished speaking. The woman blinked.

“Only a Companion could be as cultured as you are. In that case, please put these on and follow me,” she replied. She pulled out a set of handcuffs, of the magnetic variety that did not physically touch the captive, and tossed it onto the table.

“You won’t arrest him yourself?” Sunggyu spoke up, surprised. Qin glared at him, and Sunggyu understood. She had never met a Companion before either.

“I will,” Woohyun said, “if you just listen to me.”

The other captain turned towards him and sat down opposite from him at the table. “I’m listening.”

Woohyun looked her in the eye. “I want to ask you one question. Who gives the orders in the Alliance?”

“The Parliament, which sits in New Londinium.”

“No, who really gives the orders?”

She shook her head. “I don’t know.”

Woohyun smiled. “That’s one of the things about the Alliance. Nobody knows.”

The two captains in attendance gave a shocked look as Woohyun continued.

“Parliament thinks it’s giving the orders. The board of directors of Blue Sun once thought they were pulling Parliament’s strings. But now the directors are just proxies for Blue Sun’s investors. And all of these people are Lords, but at the same time they find themselves struggling to push the bureaucrats around. So nobody can tell the servant from the master. Everybody’s on their own. I think you could guess, right?” Woohyun spoke. “You served in the Unification War?”

“I was an officer aboard a destroyer, yes.” The woman said. Woohyun and Sunggyu saw her smile for the first time. “Now the Navy’s trying to justify its existence by hunting Reavers in the border planets. If it weren’t for those psychopaths in derelicts, the whole fleet would have been scrapped. Six years ago, the Navy had a real purpose: war. We had our autonomy.”

“So you know how the war went," Woohyun smiled. When Parliament said ‘Jump’, the Navy said—”

“‘ _Cao ni ma_ ’ [F— your mother],” continued Captain Qin. Her smile lingered for half of a second before it disappeared.

“Exactly,” Woohyun continued. “And who puts the Lords and directors and admirals and generals in power?”

“It’s hereditary,” said the woman.

“Yes. Lords are Lords because they’re born Lords, except for a select few who become nobles through accumulating wealth or military success. And the corporate executives are corporate executives for the same reason,” Woohyun said. “But it wasn’t always this way.”

The woman looked mildly disturbed as Woohyun spoke.

“It’s one of the things I came across as a Companion. I heard some of the basic ideas, almost rumors, when I was training. But in my professional career I learned what the past was like. It used to be, hundreds or thousands of years ago, there was this idea called ‘democracy’. Every person, no matter the class he or she was born in, would get together in an assembly, which would make decisions by majority vote. In these countries, everybody was born equal. No nobility. No slaves. Nobody had more rights than the other. And these countries devised a system where people would vote to select individuals amongst themselves, and those chosen individuals made up the government. And countries were run this way.” Woohyun said. Sunggyu felt his jaw drop again. His jaw was probably going to be sore at this rate.

“What happened?” Qin said, shocked.

“Somebody, or some people, ended it. When humans were forced off of our original homeland, Earth-that-was, something was lost. So we have the Alliance instead,” Woohyun said glumly. But he gave a smile again. “So what if we tried again? What if the Alliance held votes? Or abolished slavery? How would that work?”

“I don’t know. I don’t think the people are ready for that now. Maybe never,” said Qin.

“That’s what people said back then. But that’s not what all people say now,” Woohyun continued. “That’s why I’m wanted.”

The woman furrowed her brow. “I heard rumors that you’re wanted for stealing state secrets.”

“I can’t address that,” said Woohyun. “But I don’t think that’s the reason. I think there are other reasons why I’m wanted. And you know them now.”

The woman stared at Woohyun, who got up from his seat and bowed deeply. He reached for the handcuffs, when the woman stopped him, holding out her hand.

“Don’t,” said the Alliance captain. She got up as well. “I think I was mistaken. You’re not the person I was looking for. I’m sorry I couldn’t catch your name.”

“But I said it earlier. It’s—,” said Woohyun before he was cut off.

“I said, I didn’t catch your name,” the woman continued. She began walking off before turning around towards Sunggyu and Woohyun. “Sorry for wasting your time.” And then she left.

 

—

 

Sunggyu was still in the hold, watching as the rest of the crew, all intact, prepared the _Infinite_ to leave. He hovered by the doorway, so that he overheard Captain Qin speaking.

“So the passenger wasn’t the fugitive?” One of the armed men asked.

“No. He wasn’t. I can’t imagine that man as a Companion,” she replied.

"Shouldn't we check to see if this ship is a smuggling vessel?"

"No. We don't have the time. The  _Firefly_ -class we're looking for is still out there."

The _Infinite_ left ten minutes later, and Woohyun was back in the mess hall.

“So now that I’m part of the crew, do I get my twenty credits back?” He asked as Sunggyu entered.

“You have millions of them!” Sunggyu said, exasperated.

“It won’t stay that way if I keep losing them,” retorted Woohyun.

Sunggyu sighed. He narrowed his eyes at Woohyun. “Don’t try that equality and voting thing here, do you understand? This is my ship and I’m captain.”

“Got it, captain,” said Woohyun. “It was more complicated than that anyways. It didn't apply to ships.”

“I see,” Sunggyu said. He stood up to leave but paused. “Do you think you could tell me more about it later?”

“Of course,” Woohyun said, smiling. “After I cook for everybody.”

**Author's Note:**

> As always, any aspect of the story not fully elaborated can be left to the reader's imagination. Please forgive this worthless and deceptive author for luring in readers with a phrase like "interstellar space whore" without describing anything so titillating as a bare thigh, as well as for any other deficiencies.


End file.
